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We've already discussed Easter Eggs in movies and the many ways filmmakers create in-jokes and references for savvy viewers and those in the know, but today we're taking a look at filmmakers referencing other filmmakers (or their stars...or themselves). We bet you'll never watch these movies the same way again.
Honoring Directors They Admire:
1. Star Wars in Star Trek
Paramount Pictures
It's no surprise that Super 8 director J. J. Abrams is a Star Wars fan, but we bet you never caught R2-D2's appearance in both Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness. It looks like Star Wars: The Force Awakens won't be Abrams' first time with the Star Wars world.
Giving a Nod To Its Stars' Careers
2. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion's wink at Quentin Tarantino
Buena Vista Pictures
The comedy has a few subtle references to Quentin Tarantino's film universe. At the time, Mira Sorvino (Romy) was dating Tarantino. Thus, the keen eye can discern a Big Kahuna Burger take-out bag behind Michele's head in the scene where they pig out and decide to emulate top female executives. In one of the next scenes, an ad for Red Apple Cigarettes can be seen behind their car. Both of these brands were made up by Tarantino for his films. Red Apple cigarettes can be seen in films like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Four Rooms, and From Dusk Til Dawn.
3. Bruce Willis' Favorite Song
20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
Die Hard With A Vengeance has a Pulp Fiction reference in it! Who knew? Bruce Willis' Pulp Fiction character, Butch, is driving around while "Flowers on the Wall" by the Statley Brothers plays on his radio and he sings along before running into Marsellus Wallace. Die Hard's John McClane exits a cab in the 1995 film with Samuel L. Jackson and references his time suspended by reciting the same lyrics from Pulp Fiction: "I was working on a nice fat suspension. Smokin cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo." Willis starred in Pulp Fiction with Jackson between Die Hard 2 and Die Hard With A Vengeance.
4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Rango
sodahead.com
The beginning of Rango features the Johnny Depp-voiced reptile landing on the windshield of a convertible driven by none other than Duke and Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Johnny Depp paying tribute to Johnny Depp.
5. Adam Brody in Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith
20th Century Fox via Everett Collection
Okay, maybe everyone just really loves Fight Club and Brad Pitt, right? In the 2005 rom-com action movie, Seth Cohen plays the man they're both assigned to kill, which is how they realize they're both spies. The whole time, Brody is wearing a Fight Club t-shirt. It's pretty obvious whose side he's on.
6. Fight Club Starring Brad Pitt
20 Century Fox
Fight Club has a bunch of hidden gems in it, including advertisements for its main stars. Theater marquees within the movie advertise films starring Brad Pitt (Seven Years In Tibet), Edward Norton (The People Vs. Larry Flynt), and even Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove, although it's obscured by a bus in the scene, so this is questionable).
Paying Homage To Themselves:
7. The Social Network's Tyler Durden
Columbia Pictures
Fight Club's director David Fincher has also been known to reference his own movies. In The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg uses Facebook for help on an Art History assignment. The profile he's viewing? Tyler Durden's.
8. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
Warner Bros.
In the Tim Burton adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic, Charlie's father works for Smilex toothpaste factory; this is a reference to the poison Joker unleashed on Gotham in the Burton-directed Batman by hiding it in their toothpaste. During a tour of the factory, Wonka walks by a room of pink sheep as he says, "I'd rather not talk about this one." While this may just seem like a way to accentuate his eccentricity, Burton's actually referencing his Ed Wood biopic, also starring Johnny Depp; director Ed Wood was a notorious cross-dresser with an affinity for pink wool. In other scenes throughout the movie, children in the Halloween flashback wear masks of Lock, Shock, and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas and a door in the factory is marked "BeetleJuicing."
9. Before Sunrise/Waking Life/Dazed and Confused
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Oscar-nominated writer-director Richard Linklater's film worlds seem to intersect at times. Like when Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters Jesse and Celine from Before Sunrise in the rotoscope dream movie Waking Life, which they then reference in Before Sunset. But there are subtler ways in which the films inhabit the same world: pinball. The same pinball machine can be found in at least three of Linklater's films: Waking Life, Before Sunrise, and Dazed and Confused.
10. Friends With Benefits picks up Easy A
Screen Gems
Director Will Gluck references his 2010 hit comedy Easy A in the totally-okay-but-not-as-successful 2011 film Friends With Benefits. The sign at the airport for an "O. Penderghast" alludes to Emma Stone's character in Easy A. Stone appears in both films and is flawless in both.
Paying Tribute To Other Directors:
11. Indiana Jones/Star Wars/E.T.
Paramount Pictures
R2-D2 makes another appearance - this time in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg paid tribute to Indiana Jones writer George Lucas by including hieroglyphics of the Star Wars droid in the 1981 film. Three years later, Spielberg did it again by naming a club in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom after Obi-Wan Kenobi.
12. E.T. in Star Wars
20th Century Fox
And then George Lucas thanks Steven Spielberg by featuring E.T. the Extra Terrestrial in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
13. Evil Dead 2/Nightmare on Elm Street
Paramount Pictures
Director Sam Raimi pays homage to Wes Craven in Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn by sneaking iconic slasher Freddy Krueger's glove in the background of a few scenes.
Paying Tribute To The Genre:
14. Scream
GIPHY/reddit.com
Scream is more jam-packed with references than most other movies. It's basically a two-hour homage to the horror genre entirely. The character Billy Loomis borrows his last name from Psycho's Sam Loomis before quoting Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. The janitor outside Principal Himbry's office (played by director Wes Craven himself) is named Fred and wears Freddy Krueger's iconic striped shirt. The film is so saturated with in-jokes and references that it's pretty easy for even the most savvy viewers to miss Scream Queen Linda Blair's brief cameo. Take comfort in understanding the constant name-checking of other horror flicks.

Blogger Perez Hilton has been voted off British TV show Celebrity Big Brother. The once-catty culture vulture was asked to leave the Big Brother house on Wednesday (04Feb15), alongside pop star Kavana, leaving only five stars left to compete for the crown, including Lindsay Lohan's ex-boyfriend Calum Best and former pin-up-turned-reality TV queen Katie Price.
Hilton appeared to be thrilled that his time on the show was over, following a series of spats with other contestants.
He told Celebrity host Emma Willis, "I am so happy to be out of the house. I dreamed last night that I was leaving today, and every single person said, 'You're not going', but I said, 'My dream was so real' - my hope got me out.
"I regret entering the house, because it has been a traumatic experience for me. I've suffered so much pain in that house."
His dismissal comes weeks after soul singer Alexander O'Neal quit the reality show after branding the gay blogger a "f**got".
Hilton, real name Mario Lavandeira, Jr., has thanked show bosses for letting him see a doctor, who has prescribed him sleeping pills.
The winner of Britain's Celebrity Big Brother will be announced on Friday (06Feb15).

A stylist for Angelina Jolie and Emma Watson has been banned from the roads for five years after twice crashing her car while four times over the drink-drive limit. Clare Harries, 50, pleaded guilty to drink-driving after she was arrested twice in the same week in October (14) for crashing her vehicle, and her sobriety test showed "the highest readings the court has ever seen".
On Thursday (04Dec14), Harries was handed a four-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was disqualified from driving for five years at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court in west London.
She was also ordered to attend counselling and pay $264 (£165) in legal costs.
Harries also counts Daniel Radcliffe, Bruce Willis and Jude Law as clients.

Bruce Willis is a dad again. The actor's wife Emma Heming gave birth to baby girl Evelyn Penn Willis in Los Angeles on Monday (05May14).
A spokesperson for the couple tells WENN, "Both mother and baby are healthy and doing beautifully."
The couple already has a two-year-old daughter, named Mabel Ray, who is reportedly "delighted to have a new baby sister".
Willis also has three grown-up daughters from his previous marriage to Demi Moore.
The action man and Heming wed in 2009.

Superstar will.i.am turned the airwaves blue on Saturday night (29Mar14) after swearing during a live broadcast of Britain's The Voice. The Black Eyed Peas hitmaker, who acts as a coach on the U.K. talent show, became overexcited after a passionate performance by contestant Lee Glasson.
He said, "I've never seen anyone strangle the microphone like that before. You were really feeling that s**t."
The star quickly clasped his hands over his mouth after realising his mistake, while the show's host Emma Willis quickly apologised to the audience.
Willis added, "We know that Will has been very well behaved for three series and a word did slip out. So I apologise on Will's behalf and hope no-one has taken offence."
Will.i.am then revealed that his mother had just sent him a text message chastising him for using foul language.
After the show, he took to Twitter.com to apologise again, writing, "I'm sorry for saying #sh!+ on TV...#ooops....i didn't mean to offend anyone for the use of day to day language on Telly (sic)..."

"My husbands (sic) informed me that he's already planned Valentines day (sic). And I've run out of good ideas! Pregnancy brain suggestions welcome." Bruce Willis' wife Emma Heming has no idea how to surprise the actor for Valentine's Day (14Feb14).

Bruce Willis' wife Emma Heming has seemingly confirmed reports she is pregnant with the couple's second child by posting a photograph online showing her huge baby bump. Rumours the couple is due to become parents again swirled last month (Dec13) amid multiple reports Heming is expecting a brother or sister for their 21-month-old daughter Mabel.
The Die Hard star and his model wife declined to comment on the reports, but now Heming has apparently confirmed the baby news by posting a snap on Instagram.com showing herself posing on a beach with a huge belly beneath her stripey dress.
Alongside the image, she writes, "#BabyMoon2014."
The couple wed in 2009, and Willis, 58, is also a father to grown-up daughters Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, with his ex-wife Demi Moore.

Legendary boxer Evander Holyfield has become the first contestant to be evicted from Britain's Celebrity Big Brother, days after hitting headlines for making homophobic comments on the reality TV show. The five-time world heavyweight champion entered the house to huge cheers last week (03Jan14), but he quickly fell out of favour with the public and his fellow housemates after he suggested homosexuality could be "fixed" by a doctor.
The former fighter was being asked about his views on openly gay stars in sports by fellow housemate Luisa Zissman when he replied, "But that ain't normal (sic)."
His comments prompted Zissman to add, "That's just the way some people are born", to which he hit back, "It don't make no difference (sic). If you're born and your legs were turned this way, what do you do? You go to a doctor and get it fixed back right (sic)."
Holyfield was reprimanded for his controversial response by Big Brother bosses, and he was the first celebrity to be booted from the show on Friday (10Jan14) after scoring the fewest votes from the public.
Speaking after his eviction, he told host Emma Willis, "Of course I thought I would be loved here. I got a few votes, but not enough."
British pop star Lee Ryan, comic Jim Davidson, rapper Dappy and singer Linda Nolan are among the contestants still competing in Celebrity Big Brother.

Bruce Willis' wife Emma Heming is pregnant with the couple's second child, according to multiple reports. The Die Hard star welcomed daughter Mabel with model Heming last year (12), and it seems the 20-month-old tot will soon become a big sister.
The British beauty, 35, first sparked rumours she is expecting again at the weekend (15Dec13), when photos obtained by WENN showed Heming sporting what appeared to be a baby bump as she enjoyed a day out at a California farmers' market with Willis, 58, and young Mabel.
Multiple sources have since claimed the pregnancy rumours are true, although a representative for Willis has declined to comment.
The couple wed in 2009.
The new baby will be Willis' fifth - he is also father to grown-up daughters Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, with his ex-wife Demi Moore.